Instagram uses the #hashtag, similar to Twitter. Users can tag their photos, then people who view the photo can click on the hashtag to see other photos that are tagged the same way. While some people make up their own hashtags, there are some that are popular and have become kind of a staple on the network. Some examples of this would include #dogsofinstagram, #latergram (when you post a photo after it was taken) or #tbt (throw back Thursday, where users post photos from their past). Instagram has proven to encourage lots of interaction between users.

In April 2012, Facebook purchase Instagram for approximately $1 billion. The networks are now integrated, and the Instagram interface offers users the opportunity to share photos directly to Facebook, Twitter, and several other networks as well.

So with the popularity of Instagram on the rise, it only makes sense to figure out a way to make it work for your small business. With more than a hundred million active users, you are bound to reach your audience by using this network.

Here are some ways that you can use Instagram to become instafamous:

Feature your products or services – Instagram offers fun filters that you can use to change your photos. You can also edit them right in the app. Take fun, artistic photos of things that you offer as a business. It’s more visually interesting than just a straightforward photo listing of products. There are also other apps, such as PicStitch, that you can use to combine several photos into one.

Let your customers know that you have an account – the great thing about Facebook and Instagram being integrated is that you can share photos on both accounts. By taking the step of putting your Instagram photos on Facebook, your followers will see that you have an Instagram account and check it out.

Have a relevant but fun username – Instagram is a great place to get a little more creative and fun. While your user name should definitely relate to your business, I think it’s fine to have a little fun with your username.

Use hashtags – some Instagram users merely post photos, but don’t use hashtags for each one. If you use relevant hashtags for each post, more people will see the photos that you post. For instance, if you tag your photo #saleoftheday, anyone who clicks on that tag from any photo will be able to see your photo also.

Instagram can be a fun social network to use for personal photos, but it can also be another weapon in your business’ social media arsenal!

(Photo Source)

Gas, effort, aggravation and the waste of time when I couldn’t find what I had wanted made me realize that online shopping wasn’t the evil I thought it would be. As time has gone on, I see more and more businesses successfully use online sales from everything like freelance services to restaurant menus to e-commerce and while it continues to grow every day, it’s still surprises me that even Google stats show up to 71% of small businesses do NOT have a web site(the average is above 50%). Why are so many registered businesses not taking advantage of a web presence when it’s proved itself as such a powerful sales and marketing tool?

The Advantages

No matter what you sell or what service you provide, there are some factors and advantages of which you should be aware:

78% of consumers will check out your business online before becoming a customer. If you don’t have a web site or have a poorly design or badly functioning site, they will go to your competitor’s site to consider them.

A web site does business for you 24/7. With little (but wise) investment, a web site sells for you around the clock as well as provides customer support and information.

While your store, shop or office may have a physical location, which you should localize through your SEO efforts, you can use the web to reach out anywhere, even globally! According to AMR Research more than $1.3 trillion of goods and services will flow through internet B2B marketplaces. Do you really want to ignore your part in that figure?

Use the Technology

Online business, as opposed to traditional print mediums, reduce your marketing costs overall. A website has a wider reach and can attract a wider audience in terms of numbers. There are, naturally, start up costs involved in making an entry into the digital market, as with any evolution of a business. As with any investment in growing your business, you need to take care and pay for the latest technology as any savings by using obsolete technology will put you behind competitors as well as slow your growth.

Digital marketing is much less costly than traditional advertising avenues, such as television or newspapers, and it also allows you to easily adjust promotions and other outreach to specific targets either through A/B testing or the grouping of consumer databases you set up by customer preferences. The same methods can be used for your market research. One questionnaire, for instance, will help you separate your customer base into groups, which will help you use more targeted advertising.

Do It Right!

Your site can be a simple one-page site as long as the viewer knows what it is you offer within two minutes of clicking onto your site. If they are convinced your services or products are what they have in mind, they will stay and navigate around.

If your site looks cheap, then the viewer will think your service and products are cheap and not in a financial way. A web site, as with the way you dress and present yourself to prospective customers, is an extension of your brand and your company – a digital salesperson, if you will.

The right web hosting company is important, as any time your site is down or isn’t functioning properly is business lost. A good web hosting company will also act as professional IT services that can look after you web related issues.

So, it makes sense for any business to have a web presence but keep in mind, as with any professional office, from a presentable and efficient receptionist, to salespeople who know how to close a deal and engage customers, to competent customer service, it’s important to make sure your web designer, web hosting company, social media manager and anyone else involved in an area with which you are not familiar is a competent professional. If you put your best foot forward, then you can only succeed and your business will evolve and grow. Isn’t that what business is all about?

It use to be all about the link, and that still holds some importance, but your motivation should be about getting your content in front of a large audience.

Follow this protocol below and you’ll optimize the experience and results for both you and the publishing site.

commons.wikimedia.org

Don’t be Shy

Some sites will openly accept contributors, and others will not. I wouldn’t shy away from contacting any blog/site about contributing an article. I’d start with an e-mail, but they are likely on many social networks. So a tweet or message on another network is suggested. Don’t go overboard. Sending 10-15 messages to 10-15 different networks equals scary. Dial it down. An e-mail and/or tweet should get you a reply.

Follow Directions

Some sites will spell out exactly what they’re looking for and what you need to do to be considered. Two sites in my circle that do this well are Dashburst and itechcode. They detail the steps you need to take in a clear concise matter. These are two sites with a huge following and strong Alexa Rank. I definitely recommend these two sites if you have an interesting piece on Social Media, Technology, etc.

Create Solid Original Content

You have the green light to write your post. You want to put out solid content anytime you publish, but I think it’s imperative to produce something extra special when you’re going to be on a bigger stage.

Don’t waste your time or the blogs time by submitting duplicate content. Don’t send your article to several sites. Unless the site is a syndicate, it is expecting original content from you. Do not, under any circumstances, copy any article (or portion), and submit as your own. This is plagiarism. Most sites will run your post through Copyscape to make sure your content is original. Do the right thing.

You’re not in your basement. Your post is going to get views on a seasoned popular site. You need to make the very most of the opportunity. Bring your “A” game.

Promote your Post

While the onus is on the site to promote your post through their social networks and e-mail list, you should be promoting hard as well. Why wouldn’t you want to share wherever you can? It should be celebrated. Be proud and let your network know, they’ll be glad you did and share accordingly.

Reply to Comments

I know it’s easy to fall into the trap of completing your post, seeing it published, watch the shares grow, and not reply to comments. This is a big mistake on several levels. If you can’t reply to comments you risk not being asked to contribute again no matter how riveting your post came across. Replying allows you to possibly create a connection with the person commenting. Most commenting systems allow you to receive an e-mail whenever there is a new comment. This is a must for you.

Any others thoughts are welcomed. If you enjoyed the post please share with your network.

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There are numerous resources out there showing you how to play “small ball” with social media. If you’re going to have a massive impact with your customers, you’re going to need to adopt a clever and effective strategy that goes beyond just asking questions and posting memes.

Here are some of the different approaches I’ve found to be successful for businesses of all sizes on the social web:

Educational/Informative

Education-based marketing is my favorite approach. It’s not education is the homework sense but more of just keeping people in the know of the important data and talking points related to your market.

This strategy is all about enlightening your customers. Why? Because the more informed they are, the more confident they will be and the better their buying decision are. If you do a good job of education people about your product or service, and the important happening in our market, then they’ll look at you like a genius and reward you with their attention and business.

Provide content about how to use your product and host Q&A session where you can answer customer questions. Twitter is great for quick Q&As and Google + Hangouts are great for live demos. Creating an experience around your product or service is crucial to it’s success.

Customer Service

Many businesses have elected to utilize social media as an extension of their customer service support. This strategy generally revolves are troubleshooting; listening for mentions of customer questions or problems and replying in a timely fashion with a solution.

This strategy is great for building rapport by helping people solve a problem directly. It also serves as social proof because other people see that your business emphasizes service, which is a highly admired quality.

Be sure to monitor mentions of your business via reply, hashtag, or Twitter search. Reach out to people talking about your business and answer questions. Provide value by solving people’s problems and you’ll benefit from the goodwill and positive perceptions.

Community

Everyone has the basic human need to belong. People come together cultural, political, professional, and personal interest related reason. The success of your business is dependent on your ability to create a thriving community around your business. No community, no business.

LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google + make it very easy to create a place for people to come hang out and talk about your market or product or service. Start your own special interest group on your platform of choice, then build in the value.

Curator

Becoming a content curator is another popular option for social media. Collect the very best industry-related content from around the web and share them with your customers. Articles, blog posts, videos, and audio content like podcasts or interviews. An alternative method of curating content is to source and share user-generated content related to your product or service.

If you run a Chevy dealership, you could get your customers to share pictures of themselves with their Chevy’s. You could also share content related to Chevy reviews, car shows, and interviews with Chevy executives on your Facebook fan page or even on your website. The lesson here is you don’t always have to create the content in order to create a value exchange. Forwarding people to high quality content put you at the “elbow” of a value exchange.

Collaborative

Creating opportunities for collaboration can prove to be extremely beneficial to all parties involved. Collaboration goes right along the concept of community, being that it’s one of our most basic human needs. We are social creatures you need to interact with other people.

When you come together in collaborative efforts not only do you empower your customers by giving them some “buy-in” to your business, but you also get an opportunity to create something very natural and personal to your customers which ultimately translates into a higher response rate. The higher the level of engagement, the more people are going to stick.

A few collaborative ideas are meet-ups, where you get your team (or just yourself if you’re a one-man army) in a room with your customers in a very relaxing and natural environment You could even host a workshop where you and your customers share experiences, knowledge, techniques, and projects. Other effective collaborative efforts include Google Hangouts and Tweet chats, anything where you’re getting your customers involved to build on the movement you’ve both created.

Hitting Publish

The act of hitting “Publish” is simple in itself, but the work accomplished to be in that position always tastes sweet. Each post you publish has some background and a story. Putting the words and pictures together to bring it home and share with the internet is extremely satisfying. There is always a sensation of accomplishment and relief. I usually take a walk around the room to enjoy them moment before the promotion begins.

Providing Value

Providing value to your readers should be a leading reason to create content. It’s a huge part of what every blog should be about. Share your experiences and knowledge. Make it clear, and your readers will come back. Most readers are just looking for a valuable takeaway. If every reader exits your blog with something new then you’ve done your job. The immediate payoff of praise is usually found in your comments and tweets.

Connecting

Connecting with people from all over the world is arguably number one. Between blogging and social media the amount of people that you can build relationships with is daunting. Google Hangouts and Skyping (should be a word) with people from India, Australia, Japan, Philippines and countries you can barely pronounce. Very few outside of this space have had the good fortune of this experience. You can’t put a price on it. Listen, nothing beats meeting someone in person. However, technology has made this possible, and blogging is the catalyst. Yes, they were all extremely fortunate to connect with some guy from New Jersey. Smile.

Always Learning

You can spend 24 hours a day for the remainder of your life and not know it all. This holds true even if you’re an expert, guru, or ninja. There isn’t much that is static. Blogging itself is always evolving. SEO which is a spoke in the blogging wheel seems to change almost daily. Social Media, another spoke, continues to grow at incredible levels and each network has its own quirks and idiosyncrasies. Putting this all together is ongoing challenge that can never be mastered. The learning never stops.

Opportunities

As your blog grows you may land on the map. Time and consistent solid content generation can lead to opportunity. There are writing opportunities out there, both paid and free. Consulting, contract work, speaking engagements, and book publishing are some of the opportunities that have found bloggers.

Money

There is so much for free on the internet that we’ve become somewhat tainted. Even talking about generating income directly or indirectly from your blog is taboo in some circles. Well, you can make money through your blog. It’s not simple, but it can be done. Now you may not make $40K or $50K per month like powerhouses Pat Flynn and John Chow, but there are plenty of ways to generate income. Generating income includes: Adsense, selling advertising on your site, affiliates, writing gigs, E-Books, or your own products. That just scratches the surface.

This list could have been closer to 50, but I didn’t want this piece to be bookmarked. If you blog, we loved to hear why you find blogging to be so awesome. If you found this to be of value, please share with one of the networks below.

I Built it and they Didn’t Come

You picked a cool domain name, you’ve got your hosting setup, and the ideas are overflowing. Your logo is killer, and your site has that new car smell. You’re going to take over the world. Ah, the first post. The words are cascading right onto the screen like you’re Hemingway. This blogging thing is going to be easy. You’re dreaming of all that green and freedom.

The cursor hovers over the publish button. Click. Your post is out there for the whole world to see. An hour passes and you check your Google analytics. Hmm, where is everybody. There must be some mistake. No, there’s no mistake. How would anyone know about your post? Did you at least share it on Twitter with your 40 followers? You didn’t think it was going to be on page one of Google did you? That’s funny. Get in line.

Time, and more Time

It’s never ending. I’m not talking about kicking the can around and publishing a post every lunar eclipse. I’m talking about writing and generating original content on a consistent basis. It can be overwhelming. For most blogging is not a full time endeavor. It’s either part of your marketing plan where you look to give your readers some value, or a hobby where you write about a topic that really makes your heart beat. Yes, and for some it is a full time operation that pays the bills and more. It’s no cakewalk on any of these levels. The time around it surprises most. It can be a bear.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO. It’s a game. It’s generally in your best interest to play the game as until the clock stops. While Google, and its pets Panda and Penguin have cleaned up some of the shenanigans, there’s still more to tackle. The world will be a better place when “canonical” has no meaning and worth. Trust me. Some take it to extreme level, and with good reason. SEO done well can generate targeted traffic. All things being equal, traffic is lucrative.

If you can’t deliver solid content on a consistent basis, SEO can be your friend. It keeps the visitors coming if you’re on page one for some keyword. It takes some pressure of you to write non-stop. You should at least practice the SEO basics. The Google Algorithm becomes more sophisticated with each passing day, but it still needs help. SEO is that hand.

I’ve done zero keyword research for this piece, and I know the title is not likely to be searched anytime soon. So my neglect for SEO will result in this post having about a 3-4 day shelf life. SEO is still very powerful.

I was kind to only mention three things. There are a lot more. You better bring your “A” game if you want to see results. Blogging is a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. Well, at least tears.

This isn’t 2007. While there is a high attrition rate in the blogging space, it feels saturated right now. If you started blogging in 2007 or earlier and have been somewhat consistent you’re probably in good shape with traffic, leads, and generating revenue. Bravo. You had the foresight and good fortune to get in before the herd.

(From WordPress.com)

As you can see from the chart above, the volume of posts is at an all-time high. This is data from WordPress, the largest blogging platform on the planet. These are blogs that WordPress hosts, not self-hosted. There’s a lot more out there, but this gives you a good idea of the landscape.

The Case for Multi-Author

Unless you can uncover a niche where there are just a few players, you’re in for an uphill battle. Now there are a myriad of variables that play into attracting traffic and creating a successful blog, but at the front of the line is content. If you’re starting a blog today you have zero content. You have a lot of catching up to do. The guy that started in 2007 and is still going strong today is laughing at you.

I’ve had the pleasure of contributing to SteamFeed since November. The site kicked off in August of 2012. SteamFeed is a multi-author blog that delivers solid content in Marketing, Social Media, Business, and Technology. Daniel Hebert and DJ Thistle set out to build a community that offers its viewership content originated by authors that have achieved results in their given area.

SteamFeed has an Alexa Traffic Rank of 41,189. This isn’t the place for an Alexa debate, but that number gives you good indication of the traffic that is being generated. That is an impressive rank in seven months. Over 300 posts have been published in that time. You would be hard pressed to find many, if any, new individual blogs enjoying that kind of growth.

The Multi-Author model can produce amazing results if managed properly. The positives are numerous and include:

Multiple original Posts Published daily

Widespread promotion from the Authors

Powerful Networking

SteamFeed is approaching 40 Authors. There are steps to be approved as an author. DJ and Daniel are very organized and there is a process to follow. It’s a team. The Authors have a say in certain decisions for the betterment of the site. Authors want to be a part of SteamFeed because of the exposure. If you haven’t heard of SteamFeed you will. It’s only going to pick up Steam (I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself).

How to start a Multi-Author Blog

Once you’ve determined what your blog is going to be about you’re going to need writers. Hopefully you’re going to have relationships with 5+ people that can write successfully about your topic.

If running a site (technically) isn’t your cup of tea, you’ll need someone that can take on this role. It’s important part of the overall success.

Get the authors to commit to at least 1-2 articles per month. Try to make it the same date(s) each month. This will become a habit for them and will eliminate any confusion.

Create a Facebook group, or any network of your choice that supports group collaboration. Ideas can be discussed and announcements made through this platform.

If you can trust others, and can delegate, you are going to make large strides quickly. There aren’t many individuals that could write 300 solid articles in 6-7 months. It’s just not happening.

If you’re the creator your voice and ideas will lead the effort. Input from the authors is important and creates cohesiveness, but in the end you’ll make the final decision.

Do you currently run a multi-author blog? Do you have contributors? If not, is it paralyzing to think of someone else publishing their work on your blog?

Reading

It all starts with reading. Train their brains to read from all types of sources. Books, Kindle, E-books, and online articles. Limit their television viewing. Provide your kids with a variety of content. Let them discover their interests. The words, “Oh, you have plenty of time to figure out what you want to be” are poison to the ears. Just think of the advantage you would have had if you found your passion/love at fifteen or younger. Be consistent and make it enjoyable for your kids.

Writing

Your daughter or son just finished a book. Have them write down there thoughts about the book. Go out and purchase a journal for them to keep a diary. Even if it’s only a sentence or two a day, it becomes habit. Most kids lack a filter. Take advantage of that and encourage creativity to be expressed on paper. If they are going to be solid online, they are going to have to write.

Blog Posts, articles, and E-Books are the core of many online superstars. The obstacles to becoming an author of a book have been reduced. While the costs of creating a self-published hard cover book are steep, you can create an E-book inexpensively.

Have your kids take a typing class as soon as possible. It’s one of the most valuable classes they’ll take in school.

Public Speaking

The more comfortable your kids are speaking in a front of a group they know, the better they will be in front of strangers down the road. Have them practice in front of the family and videotape the speech. Start simple until they find their rhythm. From there you can have them start to memorize a short speech. View the videotape with them and suggest improvements.

It’s the end of your kids birthday party and you say thank you to everyone. Instead of you speaking, give your child the floor. Have them say a few words in front of the party. Let them order their own food at restaurants. When these opportunities arise let your children do the talking when you appropriate. Let them speak.

Their public speaking talents will pay dividends when they’re asked to talk at conferences in the future.

Photography

Unless you’ve spent most of your time out of the solar system you realize how visual we are as human beings. Sites such as Instagram, Flickr, and Google Plus are widely popular and cater to photography.

You see images in just about every blog post. If you don’t, you should. Don’t fight it if you don’t get it, photos and images are very important to online success.

Allow your kids to take photos from any device that includes a camera. Again, familiarity and consistency will lead to improvement.

Trey Ratcliff is arguably the most popular and social media savvy photographer on the planet. He’s taken his love and talent for photography and built it into a 7 figure a year business. Start taking pictures kids.

Building Relationships

This is arguably the most important part of this article. Learning how to build relationships is paramount to a successful online career. Are there exceptions where individuals succeed with little or no help from others? Well of course, but if you want to put the odds in your favor, you need to build relationships.

Have your kids become friendly with not just kids their age, but 2-3 grades above theirs. First, they can learn from older kids that have experienced what your kids are living currently. Secondly, the transition to High School from Junior High can be challenging and full of anxiety. If your kids have built relationship with older kids throughout their education, then entering High School will be seamless and welcoming.

If building relationships is instilled and practiced, your kids will create so many opportunities for themselves as they get older.

Sharing and Giving Back

Whether it is for someone less fortunate or just a friend that needs a favor your kids should be giving and caring. The mindset should be to help others. We don’t want our kids to ever be taken advantage of, but sharing and giving back should be the norm. Have them visit nursing homes and/or Hospitals to visit sick children. It can be humbling and fulfilling to kids. Helping others should be a staple.

There is a lot sharing and philanthropy online today. Have your kids find a cause to help and own it. It could be illness that a relative or friend has battled, which would be relatable to your child.

Take advantage of Technology

We’ve come a long way since the Commodore 64. Those were the days. Many kids have direct or indirect access to Smart phones, Tablets, and/or laptops. Your kids should embrace the technology offered today even if you, as a parent, have lukewarm feelings. Technology has become engrained in both our personal and business lives. You don’t have to shove down their throats, but don’t deprive them if they show interest. There are not many careers out there that aren’t touched by technology.

It’s never too early for a Twitter account. Your 3 year old isn’t going to be active right now, but at 5-8 they are going to start to be in tune, and maybe at 11-12 they’re ready. When they reach an age where they gain some interests (4-6) think about registering a Domain name. You’ll pay about $10 a year with GoDaddy (a) or Netfirms (a) a year, but 5-10 years down the line that domain will have good age and that is attractive for search in Google’s eyes today. You’re probably putting money away for college, why not spend $10 a year to put them in a better position with a future site/blog.

Obviously you figured out that excelling in the above will help your children in many different career paths. These are foundations to being successful online and offline. If your kids are polished in all these areas, they are well on their way to online stardom if they choose.

Please share the article if you enjoyed it and found it of value. I look forward to your comments, have a great week.

Hopefully you’re overflowing with topics and ideas to investigate that lead to colorful and informative posts. Answering questions of your readers through posts should be your vision. For those times when your idea tank is on empty, below are 5 ways to generate ideas and fill up the brain.

Quora

It seems like Quora came out 20 years ago. The Q & A platform debuted in the summer of 2010 as the brainchild of two former Facebook employees Adam D’Angelo and Charlie Cheever. Last week Quora launched a blogging platform that allows you to post within Quora. Until last week I hadn’t spent much time in Quora since it started. However, over the last few weeks seemed to be getting e-mail alerts daily with new followers, coupled with the new blogging platform and Quora has some buzz.

There are over 300K topics to choose from in Quora. There is something for all tastes. Go in there for 30 minutes and you will find some ideas for blog posts. Some of the Topics with the largest amount of followers include:

Technology Trends

Healthy Eating

Social Media

Dating and Relationships

Business Models

RSS Feeds / E-Mail Newsletters

If you haven’t registered to a least 10 Feeds or E-Mail lists in your vertical you’re making a big mistake. I’m a bigger fan of e-mail lists because many times that will come with free e-books just for signing up. Many of these e-books contain content that is better than on that blogger’s site. It’s a great to learn about what others are blogging about in your field and some of the methods they employ.

Yes, you will run into people that will just push product and services constantly through e-mail. Just unsubscribe at the bottom of the e-mail if you’re not getting any value. I’m currently subscribed to many more than 10 and a high percentage of time I take away something of value with each piece.

Tip: Use an e-mail address that is solely for this purpose. I created mailinglist at geeklesstech.com and all incoming e-mail comes into my iPad separately. I don’t it have mixed in with my other high volume addresses. This makes it more manageable and not so overwhelming

LinkedIn Groups

LinkedIn discontinued their Q & A section today January 31, 2013. No problem. Go into your relative LinkedIn Groups and you’ll witness a lot of conversations taking place. Make sure the LI Group is active. You’re allowed to be active in 50 groups at once. Find 2-3 that work for you and participate. The ideas will be cascading down your face.

Inbox Q

This is a handy tool that allows you to find people asking questions on Twitter. You set up your campaigns (keywords) of what you want Inbox Q to find for you. You can answer directly from the application if so inspired. It gives you an idea of what people are asking on Twitter for your topic which should stimulate some ideas for a post.

Your own Posts

Take a look at your own posts. They’re right there on your site. In my case, I have a lot of experience on LinkedIn but have only published one post on LinkedIn. That’s three demerits. You probably lacking in content for a topic that you are well versed. Please share that knowledge with us. In the next two weeks I’ll publish a LinkedIn post derived from Quora, E-Mail Newsletter, LinkedIn groups, and Inbox Q. I hope you will as well.

What methods do you use to generate post ideas? Please share with us.

After a quick first glance Facebook Graph Search has given Facebook a nice shot in the arm. That’s a good thing. The searches seems endless, and you can get very specific as you’ll see blow. You can really do a deep dive of what you’re looking for as Facebook has included several filters. I’m from the camp that online privacy is dead, but even I felt slightly uncomfortable how you could pinpoint an users likes and preferences. It was all available before Graph Search, but not it’s really at your fingertips.

Facebook Graph Search

So as you can below Facebook allows you to search for people, places, and things. Facebook gives you about a 45 second tour. You start with a main menu that includes “My Friends” and “Restaurants nearby” -

Restaurants nearby

So if you search “Restaurants nearby” you’re going to get local restaurants that have Facebook Business Pages. While an argument can be made that every local business should have a Facebook Fan Page already, companies that don’t have a page will be at a little disadvantage. It will be interesting to see how Business Pages over the next year with the arrival of Graph Search.

Refine your Search

I searched Museums in New York, New York. It will bring up all the museums in New York City that have a page. You can also see that it shows all my friends that “Liked” each museum. You can also refine your search to show other places such as bar, hotel, and movie theaters.

You can refine your search by Place Type, Liked By, Name, Places In, and Visited by. This will give the user searching pinpoint results.

Graph Search Web

There will be times when your search will need help from an outside source. That outside source is Bing. Right now 50K SEO consultants are running to optimize their clients sites for Bing. Oh no…

The search for “social media consultants new york city” brought me to a Web Search. Now you don’t leave the Facebook site, but the results are pulled from Bing. Well you didn’t think they were going to use Google did you?

My friends who like Bon Jovi

Basically you can search “My friends” who like anything. In the example below I searched, “My friends who like Bon Jovi”. Here are some of the results. Again, you can refine your search results. The other point of interest on these search results are the month and year that you became friends with someone.

Facebook Graph Search – At first glance I liked what I saw. This will certainly keep users on Facebook longer. The Graph Search also allows us to see what friends like and that is very powerful. For example, we are definitely motivated to try restaurants that our friends like and recommend. While the detail (a full review of a restaurant) isn’t there yet, I can see this being a resource that people use. A recommendation from a friend goes a long a way, and makes our buying decisions easier.

Undoubtedly there will be bashers of the new Facebook Graph Search, but that’s to be expected of anything big and new. This is fresh out of the oven, and while I tested it for about 2 hours, the Graph Search looks very solid.

I hope you found the article valuable. Please share if you liked it, that would be much appreciated. I look forward to your comments.

Blogging is extremely challenging, contrary to what you might see out there about getting your blog up in five minutes, giving the impression that it’s a breeze. The reasons vary, but time, lack of traffic, short on passion, and lacking self-confidence are some of the leaders. Hopefully each of you can share a little bit about your blogging journey. Let’s learn from each other and improve.

Justin Hall is highly regarded as one of the pioneers of blogging. He started a web-based diary in 1994 while at Swarthmore College. If we use that as the starting line, blogging starts its 19^th year.

WordPress.com one of most popular CMS (Content Management System) crossed 60 million sites today. This only includes WordPress.com sites and not self-hosted. This gives you an idea of the sheer mass.

When did you start Blogging?

Are you a new to the world of blogging or are you a veteran? So many blogs start out with good intentions and high hopes only to be vacated unceremoniously. Let’s hear about how you started, and what your blog is about.

Have you been a consistent blogger?

Blogging is not for the faint of heart. It takes a lot of dedication to do it well and consistently. Did you publish 100+posts last year? Was the frequency balanced over the 12 months? How many posts have you published in your lifetime?

How much time do you spend on blogging per week?

Blogging entails writing, research, SEO, and promotion through social networks. That’s just part of the process, but you and I know it takes a great deal of time. It’s a lot of work, but it doesn’t feel like work if you love doing it every day.

What are your challenges with blogging?

What are your challenges: Lack of time, trouble creating content, building a subscriber list, spending time on social, SEO, working on the back end, or getting traffic to your site? Yes, there are more, but at least one of those is probably a challenge for most.

Are you making a living online?

Is blogging directly or indirectly paying your bills? I’m really interested to see how many of you have been able to build a business where blogging is in an integral part of your plan.

Where do you see the world of Blogging five years from now?

Can this growth be sustained? Will there be over 400 million blogs in 2018? What does the future hold for bloggers? Is blogging a High School kid or a Senior Citizen?

I’ll start with my blogging and online history to get the comments started. I guess I’ve done things backwards. I started on LinkedIn in April 2007, now approaching 6 years. In April of 2009 I joined Twitter. I guess there is something about April. The last two years, I don’t think I’ve missed a day on Social Media. Most of you probably started your online business with a blog and spent most of your time building that while social media was in the background.

This blog was started in October 2011 as an extension to my social media presence. It started as a casual thing where I would post occasionally, but very far from consistent. With my blogs and contributing to other sites, I’ve published about 70 posts. Certainly not enough. In November, just three months ago, I got focused on the blog. I realize traffic is only a portion of the equation, but the increase has been promising. This month’s traffic will exceed 16K unique visitors. I’m not making a living, yet. I have zero doubt that I will by continuing to help others, through using smarts and being innovated, working hard, and a passion that allows me to work on it 14 hours straight with a smile on my face.

I would love to hear about your experience with blogging. A few sentences would be valuable to all readers, and very much appreciated.

What’s Hot

The “What’s Hot” section is probably not what you’re expecting. It’s called “What’s Hot” on mobile (at least on the iPad), but called “Explore” from a laptop or desktop. I think most would anticipate that it would only include posts that have been +1’ed and shared hundreds if not thousands of times. While I’d say about 50-60% of the content falls into this bucket, the remaining posts fall under 100 +1’s. The good news is you and I can get something to the “What’s Hot” section. While I haven’t pinpointed the Google Algorithm, I think they want a variety of subject matter. Once in the “What’s Hot” area good things usually happen. A lot more eyeballs see the posts in “What’s Hot” and generally you’ll see a nice pop in +1’s, shares, and comments.

The image below was captured today 1/19/2013. As you can see nestled in with posts from NBC News (with 500+ comments and 529 +1’s) and The Verge (500+ comments and 708 +1’s) is a post on the “Magnectic Pogo Cable – Magnector” with a very modest 4 comments and 6 +1’s. In all likelihood, this post just hit shortly before I viewed. Checking back a few hours later the post was no longer in “What’s Hot”. In order to stay in the section the post needs to gain +1’s, shares, and comments at an unknown rate, but it has to move. I’m sure the activity of the user posting and how many circles he/she is in is part of the mix.

The Power of Sharing

Last Saturday there was a post from the Marketing, Social Media, and Tech site SteamFeed authored by Robert Caruso. I’m a contributor to SteamFeed and know Robert. As with most posts there wasn’t much G Plus +1 love a day after it had been published. At the time there were only 2 +1’s in the share bar. The article talked about the biggest mistakes small businesses make in social media. I enjoyed the article and found it provided a lot of value. My thinking was this piece could get to “What’s Hot” and take off. Well about 25 minutes after posting it was in “What’s Hot”. It stayed there for a while, and was in the 2^nd spot for a good chunk of time.

Here’s the tally a week later:

+1’s 442

Shares 162

Comments 72

+1 Share Bar 779

Boom!!! From +2 to a more deserving 779, and a great reason to share posts you enjoy on Google Plus.

Here’s one more example. This article was from the site ARKarthick and was actually a guest post authored by Nischala Murthy Kaushik. An incredible article that came out right after New Year’s Day. The piece is so powerful and stirring. I highly recommend you read both articles when you get a chance, they are linked.

I recommend you start participating on Google Plus if you’re not already. Dive in and comment, +1, and Share.

I hope you found value in this post. If so, please share and comment. I look forward to hearing from you.

On Page SEO

Title - The next most important thing after content. Gosh, I see a lot of silly titles. If you’re serious about your blog and site take the time to come up with a solid title for each post you published. Should you write for Google search? Absolutely not, but if you can tweak a title after doing a quick keyword search that has more appeal, then make the change.

For this post, I initially came up with “SEO 2013: Keep it Simple this year Bloggers” but discovered the data below after a Google Keyword search.

Well 140 and 12 with High competition didn’t sound like a winner. While the search numbers should increase since it is so early in the year, the High competition would only get more challenging. Then I saw the results below. A much better chance of getting some search results. Changed from “SEO 2013″ to “SEO Basics” and presto the success rate chances just increased dramatically.

Keep Title under 70 Characters in length

Keywords should be closer to the front of the title tag. In this case the keywords “SEO Basics” were in front

Keywords - You want to use your keywords near the top of the page, and at least 2-3 times in the body. Don’t force it. If you feel like you’re having trouble fitting them in then they’re probably not the best keywords for your piece.

Your keywords should also be placed in the alt attribute of an image on the page at least once. This helps with both your site and image search.

Meta Description – The meta description does not get used by Google for rankings, but you’ll see it in the results page under the title. It’s basically a quick summary of what the article is about.

The meta description length should be in the 135-155 character range, while not exceeding 155 characters

Meta Keywords - I don’t know how to break this to you, but meta keywords really don’t have any value all. While the meta description at least serves as a snippet under the title in search, the meta keywords just show up as tags under your post. Just sitting there with no worth.

Linking: Back and Internal

Until SEO is officially dead, linking is still an important part of your Google rankings. You should get into the habit of at least one link to another post or other content on your site. This does help for SEO, and you’re giving your readers additional content similar to the what they’re enjoying in the current piece. Without a link, chances are they will not navigate to related information. Take a couple of extra minutes on each post to incorporate this method.

Back Linking is a more complicated endeavor. The spirit of back linking is for someone to love your article and then to link to your article from their site. It’s suppose to be a natural process. Google sees it as big positive when someone links to your site, well except when that site is spammy. That can hurt you, and you have limited control when that happens.

So what do most of us do? We comment on blogs, which provides a link providing it is dofollow. We guest post, which generally provides a link from the bio box from the other site. I write on a few other sites and my link is on those sites, but is that the spirit of back link? Some of us do article marketing where we write on an Ezine or Squidoo for example, and link back to our site. One can definitely question the merits of the article marketing method, as it sort of a manipulation of the system. While article marketing takes time and effort, I could definitely see it being on Google’s list to clean up search. Stick with commenting, because you can build rapport with someone by adding to their site. The back link is gravy. Google can’t take away the connection you’ve made with others.

Content

It might be the last section of this post, but it’s first when it comes to SEO Basics. Without content all of the other stuff doesn’t matter. The search engines can’t find white space. If you only want to write when you have something to say, that’s fine, but it’s not good for SEO. It’s not good for getting your name and brand out to the world. The more solid the content, not epic, you can produce, the better your results will be… Period.

Please share if you found value in the article. If you really enjoyed feel free to back link to the post. :) Thank you.

Write, Write, Write

Writing is the foundation of your blog. While some do video blogs or podcasts, a written post is still the route that most bloggers follow. If you want to write well you need to write frequently. If you are having trouble finding the words, get warmed up by commenting on other blogs. It will get the cerebral juices flowing and provide a nice stretch before diving into your own post. Try to get some writing in daily that’s longer than 140 characters. Chances are that you don’t publish a post daily, but get out and comment or generate other written content for your site.

Enough with “Epic”

It’s silly already. If you are happy with what you’ve produced before hitting “Publish” then you’ve done your job. Michael Jordan didn’t make every shot, Babe Ruth didn’t hit a HR at every at bat, and Dan Marino didn’t throw a TD every pass. You and I are not going to write something “epic” each time out. Don’t try to be perfect, it will kill your efficiency. Strive for being solid, and good things will happen.

Join a Blogging Group

Blogging is a grind, and far from sexy. The process of blogging is no picnic, and doing it all by yourself can be catastrophic. Most bloggers want to help other bloggers. There are always exceptions, but the core is more than willing to help and work together. You’re doing yourself a disservice by ostracizing yourself. I suggest you join a blogging group. You can find them in Facebook. While I’m a part of several, the best managed group is called Biz Blogging Buzz. The group basically reads, comments, and shares each other’s content. It is a great example of a group hitting on all cylinders led by Kim Castleberry. If you’re not in group, give it serious consideration.

Stay Focused

This can be challenging, especially when you’re not making living online. At one time or another most of have lost focus with our blogs. Don’t fall into the trap of “I’ll write when I have something to say” which generally leads to large gaps of time between posts. Take a look at Mark Schaefer’s blog. He published over 280 posts in 2012 and surpassed 1000 in just four years. That’s incredible. That’s the true definition of consistency and focus. I know Mark stays ahead of the game by having more than a handful of posts in reserve. This is imperative for those times when something comes up unexpectedly. It gives you a cushion.

Be Social, Stay Social

Come here I want to show you something. I want you to meet Google Plus, Twitter, and LinkedIn. These three have millions and millions of users that want to connect with you. Open the door and exit your site. The time outside of your site is more important than the time spent inside. Roll up your sleeves and spend time on these social networks. I know you’re probably on Facebook, but are you just communicating with in-person friends only? You should consistently communicate and be social with others in your vertical or niche. It will help with your blogging world, and more importantly you’ll find a lot of good people out there to meet. Get off the deserted island.

As always, comments and shares are appreciated. Have a Happy and Successful 2013.

Why you need a lot of Twitter Followers

Twitter is a different animal. Twitter is a grind. It is not an immediate gratification network, and because of that many fall off the face. You really need to enjoy Twitter to be successful on Twitter. Let’s say you have a 1000 followers that you have deemed quality. Well, you really don’t have a 1000 followers. In that 1000 count you could have anywhere to 10-30% that are inactive (no tweeting for more than 30 days).

Just to give you an idea, I currently have 30,223 Followers but 4235 (Tweepi) of those followers have been inactive for more than 30 days. So 14% of my Followers are inactive.

Another argument for gaining followers is the short shelf life of a tweet. From my experience, I don’t think most users go to someone’s profile and read their last 50 tweets. That’s just not the nature of Twitter. People either see it when it happens or they don’t see your tweet. If they don’t see it, it won’t be retweeted or mentioned. More followers gives your tweet a better chance of being viewed.

People have to be looking at Twitter or a third party Twitter application to see your tweet. If you have 1000 users, some are inactive, and many won’t be on when you’re tweeting. The window is smaller with fewer followers.

Execution – Have a Plan

As with most things in life you need to have a plan. Twitter is no exception. If you don’t have a plan, chances are you’ll get frustrated and disinterested. Your account will fall off the cliff and your time will be wasted. Below are some tips on following that will increase your follower rate.

In the last post we spoke about how and whom to follow, but I wanted to share a tool that you should be using if you’re not already.

Tweepi is a powerful tool that helps you manage your Twitter account. Below is a screenshot from the free version of Tweepi (they also have a premium version). Tweepi uses a checkbox system where you need to check each user, but it can be done fairly quickly. These tools allow you to focus your efforts on who to follow.

A good rule of thumb is to give people a week to follow you back. If they don’t follow you back you need to unfollow them. You need to be consistent and do this weekly. You can use Tweepi again for this process.

Follow Everyone that Follows You – This can and should be automated. As you get more people following you on daily basis, and you will, this becomes a chore. If you don’t automate, you’re bound to drop the ball. What, follow everyone that follows me?

Here’s my theory on following everyone that follows me. Twitter is part of Social Media. With a few exceptions, it’s an open network in that you can send a message to anyone and vice versa. If someone follows me, I take that as someone reaching out to shake my hand. Would you walk away from someone reaching out to shake your hand? (Rhetorical)… So I don’t snub anyone. I use automation because I just can’t keep up with it manually at this point. You’re wasting your time if you analyze everyone that follows you, and trying to decide if you should follow.

I use Social Oomph. They provide an Auto Follow tool that makes the process seamless and efficient. There is a nominal cost for this, but I’m serious about my Twitter account so money well spent. They also provide many other features and benefits that tie into Twitter.

I believe you should unfollow inactive users (30 days), eggs, and no profiles. Once a week I suggest you go into Tweepi and clean out these three types of users. Following someone that is inactive serves no purpose. Following someone that doesn’t take the time to put up a photo and/or profile is generally not worth following.

Have fun with Twitter. Yes, you can make connections on Twitter. Yes, it can help get people to your blog or site. Yes, it can help your small or medium business with new and current customers. Have a plan, execute, and make it happen. A little patience will go a long way.

Please share if you found the piece of value. Looking forward to your comments.

Twitter recently crossed the 200 million monthly active users plateau. That was a mouthful. Look at your local news programs and most reality TV shows and you’ll find Twitter handles galore. In case you missed it, even the Pope Benedict XVI started tweeting this month. He has a healthy follower count of 1.29 Million.

For our purposes, I’ll assume you’re not the Pope or Justin Bieber.

Twitter Housekeeping

Please put up a profile picture immediately. Nobody wants to tweet to an egg. Why is this so hard for some? Likewise, complete your profile with keywords and a little bit about yourself. You want other users to know about you. This also makes you searchable.

Be Active and Consistent

If you’re serious about building a following you need to tweet every day. Yes, I said every day. At the very least you should generate 8-10 tweets over the course of the day. Just about every post and article on the planet has a tweet button that allows you to easily share something of interest. Being active doesn’t mean tweeting every two minutes. A good rule of thumb is to tweet once every 20-60 minutes during your local time working hours. Find a spread that you’re comfortable with and that works for you. Now if you’re in a conversation with someone, don’t wait 20 minutes. That would be slightly awkward. That’s an acceptable time to tweet at a quicker rate.

Follow People that Follow People

As long as you keep following people you will get followed back, assuming you’ve stayed the course with the steps above. I know this isn’t sexy, but if you’re just starting out and have less than 2000 followers, this is part of the process. You want to follow people that follow people because they are more likely to follow you. Seth Godin is not going to follow you, me, or the Pope.

Follow People that share your Interests

People are more likely follow you if there are common interests, and you have something to talk about with them (I mean tweet). If you are highly interested in Sports don’t follow people that are interested in anthropology. As your following grows you can be more flexible, but early on stick to similar interests.

RT and Mention People you Follow

Social Media is about communication, sharing, and helping others. If your mindset is to give others something of value, you’ll be in good shape. Be proactive about mentions and RT’s. Most people really do appreciate the gesture. Make sure you’re doing this every day. It’s extremely important, and lends to building rapport with others.

Added to a List – Take Action

Whenever you’re added to a list take action. It takes a little more effort and thought to be put on a list, and it’s very complimentary. It’s likely the other members on the list are active and share similarities. Go to the list and hit “Members” up top. This will show you all the members on the list that where you were just added. Go through this list and look to follow as many as you can.

Put Users on a List

Please start implementing Lists into your plan immediately regardless if you’re a veteran or rookie. Creating and managing focused lists will make your Twitter experience efficient. As your Twitter account grows it can get away from you very quickly. I know all too well. Building lists pinpoints people that are important to you and people that could become important to you. Without lists these people can slip through your fingers, and fall deep into the Twitter pool.

Set expectations and have patience

Don’t get caught up in the minutiae of people not following you back. You can’t take it personally, that’s what happens with numbers. In the beginning, in order to keep your counts balanced, you’ll need to unfollow users that aren’t following you. Following a 100 users a day is a good starting point. We’ll talk about detailed execution and some Twitter tools that are a must in my next post Monday.

The post from KISSmetrics included “Write Long Posts” as one its top 30 blogging tips.

The reasons included:

Search engines know better what the post is about because of the length

The disappointment of the reader when attracted to a great headline, only to be disappointed by the length of the post

Liabilities of a Long Post

The time to create the post – I wouldn’t be surprised if the KISSmetrics post took 10+ man hours to complete. The writing and research for this type of post would be painstaking for most of us. The links, images, and photographs all have to be placed on the backend. It is a labor intensive effort when 4500+ words are involved.

I just couldn’t put that Blog Post down - Do you ever find yourself saying this with blog posts that resemble e-books? I’m guessing not so much. Hold on, someone just liked my cat picture on Facebook, I have to go thank them. I know, I’ll bookmark and read later.

Off to the Bookmark Black Hole – Let’s face it, all things being equal, longer posts generally head to that crowded place we call bookmarks. Sadly, most posts will not see the light of day once they land in bookmarkville. We really mean to get back to them, because they are overflowing with value, but it just doesn’t happen.

Blog Post or “War and Peace” – The internet and the content created resembles a fast food environment. We want it short and sweet. Is it any surprise that Twitter is so popular? Cozying up with a nice 4500 word piece doesn’t play for the majority. Photos, quotes, and images get more love than posts. We’re visual. Those are the facts. No need for an empirical study, we live it every day online.

Efficiency – Are 4-5 800 word posts more valuable to you, the writer, than one 4500 word post? This is something to think about before embarking on mega post. If you’re looking for the highest percentage of readers to finish the piece keep it short.

Long doesn’t mean Good – Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that just because your post is long that it’s going to be good and well received. The KISSmetrics piece is solid, but there are no guarantees for any writer. A lot more can go wrong with a long post.

The KISSmetrics post could have been an e-book. One page for every tip detailed, and you have a 30 page e-book. If you have 4000+ words in you, think about putting together an e-book. The people that request an e-book expect it to be much longer than your typical blog post. While getting you point of view out there is important, keep it tight and think about your readers.

Have you ever composed a 4000-5000 word blog post?

Have you composed a 1500 word post?

What were the results?

When is the last time you read a 4000 word post verbatim?

I welcome and look forward to your comments on this one. Don’t be shy. If you enjoyed this 573 word post, please share.

It’s Google’s answer to Facebook Groups. That new car smell jumps off the screen, but this is more than another shiny toy.

I caught the post Thursday on the Google’s Official Blog that Google+ Communities were being rolled out. They showed some public community examples including The Audi Community, Star Wars, and The Photo Community (led by Trey Ratcliff). The Photo Community has over 14,000 members already if you’re keeping score at home.

Later that evening it became apparent that Google+ users could create their own community. Hmmm, should I do this? What the heck, let’s give this a shot, and the Blog Community was born. Come join if you’re interested in blogging and making connections.

The Great

The People – While the core of Facebook is friends and family, the active Google Plus user has more of an interest in industry and hobbies. While Photography, Technology, and Social Media are some of the favorites, there is a wide array of topics that have a passionate following outside of the communities.

Categories - So you’re not relegated to one long stream of dialogue and content as is the case with Facebook. The Google + Communities have categories which basically create communities within the community. Below is an example of some of the categories from The Photo Community. As you can see there are many categories that are included in photography. This allows the member to hone in on a specific aspect of photography. This is powerful. Whatever your community of choice, you’ll find a layer that should no doubt keep your interest.

Diverse Communities - Only two days in and there is no shortage of community topics. There is something for everyone from Photography to Nuclear Energy. Here are few to check out that look like they’re cooking already.

The Photo Community

deviantART Community

Real Estate

Space

Makers, Hackers, Artists & Engineers

Friendly Interface and Search – The Google+ Community interface and search really makes it easy for you to take a look at a community before joining. The overwhelming majority of communities are set at public, so the door is wide open.

The Bad

Well it’s not all peaches and cream! Google has a good reputation of digesting user feedback and making adjustments to create a better experience. It’s a little tough to be overly critical after only two days, but here are two flaws of the Communities that have been discussed widely on Google+.

Currently if you post on a public community that post will also be shown under your profile. This can create confusion especially if you are posting consistently in several communities. It can make your profile messy fast. Google has to allow users in communities to choose if they want their post shared to just the community or to specific circles in addition. There is no choice right now.

If you are creating a community, choose very carefully if you want to it be public or private. There is no turning back. Unfortunately, if the need arises to change from one setting to another you’re out of luck. If you wanted to go from public to private you would need to delete the group and start over. That is a problem.

Why you need to Join

Ground Floor on Large Network – Communities are fresh out of the oven, and a great time for you to create your own community of interest. It’s unbelievably simple to start your own community. Be one of the first to start a community in your niche, and build it up.

Make new Connections – The active users on Google Plus are generally not the same active users from Facebook. Most pick one or the other to spend the brunt of their social media time. This gives you the opportunity to make new connections in a whole new environment.

Many of us have made our strongest online connections in Facebook groups, and I have a few that are still of great value. However, Google+ Communities looks like it has the makings to be a special place, and I highly suggest you give it a shot.

If you enjoyed the article and found it of value, please share. Comments are welcomed.

Continuous Change

Search Engine Optimization professionals need to be aware of the constantly changing rules and guidelines that are put in place by Google. Site owners and blog owners have been surprised in recent months due to Google’s strict policy of not tolerating “followed links” that distort the ranking information. You need to stay abreast of the ever changing SEO space. At least keep your eyes on key developments like: Panda, Penguin, EMD (Exact Match Domain), and the Disavow Tool. You are aware of these, right? What did penguin target again? Google generally updates their problem solving procedures (algorithms) without warning, but more recently there have been advisories. Take note.

Panda – First released in February of 2011 by Google, with the goal of lowering the rank of thin sites to allow quality sites to rise in search. There have been several updates since, and Google provided 23 attributes of a high-quality site so you’re not out in the dark.

Penguin – Penguin hit in April of 2012, and was aimed to penalize sites using black-hat techniques including: cloaking, keyword stuffing, link schemes, and duplicate content.

EMD (Exact Match Domain) – Google announced in September (2012) that low-quality EMD’s would be reduced in search results. Prior to this, having an exact domain was quite beneficial to that search irregardless if the content inside was garbage. That has change. The algo affected less than 1% of US-English queries.

Disavow Tool – This tool was released so website owners could remove links pointing to their site which were using techniques outside of Google’s guidelines. Make sure you site is registered at Google’s Webmaster Tools.

Link Building & Keywords

Link Building is still very important to the overall SEO equation, but the Wild Wild West days have vanished. That’s a good thing, it levels the playing field. The other important way to increase your page ranking is the use of appropriate “keywords”. The key is to be natural in your writing. Going back after you completed your article and sticking a word or phrase in ten different places will be of no value moving forward. Excess keyword insertion may have worked before, but now appropriate and relevant keywords are required. Your post is not a Turkey, stop stuffing keywords.

Choosing an SEO Company

Due to the constant change in search engine optimization in ingenious ways, new updates can cause complications. As a business, you can’t afford to take these hits. Stay away away from link schemes. You need to choose a reputed company that has an established track record to manage your SEO. This will ensure that your company will not face problems when other companies are struggling to regain their Google page ranking. A good SEO company can offer good advice on the number and frequency of links and keywords. If you’re on a tight budget, or have no budget, you should be able to keep pace by following the 3 sites below.

SEOmoz – One of the leading SEO sites out there with a fantastic blog that always provides valuable content. A must for anyone that wants to keep with pace with fast moving SEO world.

Matt Cutts – Matt is head of Google’s Webspam team. Matt provides key information on Google/SEO and has posted 542 articles on the topic. Be sure to follow him on Google + as well for further insight.

Search Engine Land – Led by Danny Sullivan, Search Engine Land provides news, insight, and best practices for SEO, SEM, and Social Media.

Social Sharing Optimization

It even has its own acronym (SSO). Whether you’re a SMB or individual, you have to put yourself out there on the social network train. You need to pickup your activity and engagement levels on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the larger social bookmarking sites like StumbleUpon. You need to dive into Google Plus head first. Google is hitting you over the head to use their social network. You need to listen. A shift is in progress, and traditional SEO could be headed to hospice sooner than you think.

The Future of SEO

Good search engine optimizers know that the SEO landscape is rapidly changing and is not the same as in previous years. Campaign planning must take into consideration the current realities when launching a new product or service. For successful campaigns, a multi pronged approach is required. This would ensure that the website does not incur penalties or lose visitor traffic .Today most customers like to control the decisions because they are aware of and more critical of marketing techniques.

Now customers need the best options. With customers exercising such control, businesses now have to adopt effective SEO strategies. This requires producing a steady stream of content that appropriately addresses the needs of the customers.

Create solid content and get it in front of your audience using social. Keep building relationships, and don’t stop. The shares, likes, and comments will follow leading to better search results of your content.

Goodbye November. Hello December. Make it a Great Month…

Please share the post if you found it to be of value. Comments are always welcomed…

The most effective manner for On-Page SEO techniques are being altered at an accelerated rate. Taking into consideration the various Google updates and the indefinable hold of social media, getting totally familiar on successful SEO procedure is becoming quite a challenge. To be in the top rankings, websites need to adjust. In a recent discussion on websites, five outdated procedures were discussed in the promotion of important content, and previous best practices were considered redundant.

These included forcing the maximum amount of keywords in a minimum space, creating unnecessary and outmoded content for supporting target keywords, buying links, sustaining used links and article spinning. Examine your website(s) and SEO techniques and if any of the above techniques are still being used, you must update immediately. The future is in considering all factors relevant to your site which must be understood and then optimizing for best user knowledge and understanding.

Good Content

When you produce relevant and solid content, people and search engine spiders will notice your site. On-Page SEO should be attentive to the post-click occurrence. The recent change in SEO adaption strengthens the concept that content is king. The new standard is supported on knowing your audience. There should no guessing. This can be achieved by listening, changing your SEO techniques to meet requirements, and then giving the audience what it wants.

Factor to Concentrate on

Progressive strategy makers are now concentrating on four major factors. This includes relevance of your SEO techniques by giving content that is reliable and trustworthy, by creating a site that can be crawled and indexed and meets current data values and principles, and gives content that impresses your audience. This means building a brand and endorsing it on targeted opportunities and be recognized as an intellectual. This will help you create sites that catch the attention of your audience.

Engagement

The content that you write should be accurate and without any ambiguities which can be shared socially. Display post-click knowledge contentment and fulfillment, monitor the results, assess the important aspects of your web site, and experiment to find out what works the best with your audience. SEO techniques begin by evaluating thoroughly the entire segment audience that you want to reach. It is more than checking the search performances of the current sites for how to attract audiences.

Landscape Analysis

This is the first step in search optimization is where audiences need viable SEO landscape to decide upon the content to base the web site upon, the manner in which it should be built and the conversion of natural searches and other incoming promotion and selling avenues. This is significant in aggressive verticals online. Natural SEO techniques include identifying your audience and deciding upon the requirements of the audience and monitoring to see who is doing it right and how you can do better.

Find the most favorable conditions and the way to prioritize, your approach for availing the most favorable conditions according to current performances, aggressive landscape and the means to achieve your goals.

If you’re working for IBM and in every social network your byline reads, “the views represented here are my own and not those of my employer” just be careful about your activity. This is something you need to feel out with your employer.

LinkedIn (LNKD) went public in May 2011, and currently trades ($107.59) above its opening day high. It’s IPO and run has been smooth and profitable, much better than the ballyhooed and disastrous Facebook IPO. With a 187 million users and growing it would behoove you not to participate. LinkedIn offers a lot of opportunity to connect with others and build relationships.

1. Keep your profile updated – This may sound simple, but so many users can’t manage to complete their profile. Having a LI profile without a photo is inexcusable. Period. If you don’t have a photo displayed, you lose credibility. Upload a professional headshot photo if you haven’t already. A headshot is more personal than a logo. Arguably worse than no photo is a picture of a celebrity. Come on. Take the time to complete your profile. It’s to your benefit to go in and complete 100%.

2. Customize your website links – Under the Contact info tab you should put your business website info. You can have two additional site listed in this space. Add your personal blog and a charity site that you support. Now something a lot of users miss is personalizing the title of the sites. Using the default “Company Website” is bland. Charge it up a bit.

Go to: Profile > Edit Profile > Additional Information (on the bottom) > Edit > Websites > Other
Put the title in for each site or use keywords if you prefer. Mix it up, be creative.

3. Join Groups and Engage - Groups are arguably the most important part of LinkedIn. This is where you meet people and build rapport. This is where connections are made. There’s no build rapport in 15 minutes plan. This takes time. While you can join up to 50 groups, start with 1-2 where you have an interest and will be active. Anymore than that and you won’t be able to keep up.

4. The new “one-click” endorsement – This has been all the buzz of late. The critics have lined up. LinkedIn is worthless now because it’s too easy give an endorsement. Come back down to earth. Think of it as a little nugget, a show of appreciation to someone else.

5. Recommendations – Unlike the “one-click” immediate gratification endorsements, recommendations are a more thorough representation of a business relationship. A couple things. Even if you’ve amassed 50-60 recommendations, you should only show 7-8 on your profile. Anything more is too much, and will probably include some poorly written versions. You want to highlight the marquee recommendations. I’ve been asked multiple times to write recommendations, and while I’ve done some, they can be a time consuming operation. Learn to say “No”. You have to pick your spots. People will ask, and feel like I should have it done by the end of the day. If you do say yes, set expectations so it doesn’t get messy. Another idea is to have the requester write up something themselves and you can tweak and edit accordingly. This takes the onus of you create this from scratch. If I was asking for a recommendation today, I would proactively write it up myself to get the ball rolling.

6. Content Curation – Finding solid relative content is an ongoing challenge for both individuals and businesses. LinkedIn provides an area that consistently delivers good quality content that can be easily shared. LinkedIn Today captures the day’s top new, and is tailored specifically for you. LinkedIn Today can be found under News in your profile.

7. Post, Comment, and Like – This ties in with #3. People post on Facebook, but many forget about LinkedIn. This article will be posted on LinkedIn. If you have something interesting to share, either of your own or something you uncovered, go ahead and post it. Likes are always appreciated for others that post, and commenting allows you to share your voice and participate in some great conversations.

8. Tight Connections or Loose Connections – So you have two ways to go with your account. Keep it tight with only people you know personally, or open the flood gates and accept every invitation that comes your way. There are arguments for both sides. You’ll see LION a lot on LinkedIn. LION stands for LinkedIn Open Networker. If you want to go this route, I’d suggest joining TopLinked. It runs $10/mo and adds you to an invite me list. If you do join, make sure to turn off your notifications. They come in fast and furious. I went this route because at the time I was a Sales Manager and wanted to build a huge database for my team. You need to decide what’s best for you situation.

9. Premium Account – I’ve upgraded to premium a few times on LinkedIn over the last five years. For certain occupations it makes sense and it’s worth the $24.95/mo. The Executive turbo plan actually runs $99.95/mo. If you’re in Sales, HR, and/or Recruiting, it’s worth a closer look. The premium upgrade allows you to see more.

10. LinkedIn Advertising – Oh yes, LinkedIn offers Ads. I’ve used this a handful of times with another business and had mild success with 1-2 warm leads for each $25 spend. It works similar to Google Ads in search. You have 25 characters for the Title and 75 characters over 2 lines for the description. You can also and can add an image. LinkedIn Ads really allow you to pinpoint who sees your advertisement. You can target your campaign by location, company, job title, and many more. They offer Pay per Click (CPC) and Pay per 1,000 Impressions (CPM). Go with the CPC as you want people clicking through to your landing page. The minimum budget is $10.00.

As is the case with most Social Networks, you get what you put into it. Yes, let’s not split hairs, LinkedIn is a social network. If you don’t stay active and participate consistently you will not get results from LinkedIn.

LinkedIn can be a powerful tool for business owners. It is a simple one to use, too. LinkedIn used properly can help you to gain very specific people who may be ideal visitors to your blog. They will not visit just one time either. The right networking will net you followers of your blog long term.

If you’re looking learn more about LinkedIn, I highly suggest two books from Neal Schaffer. He takes it to another level, and both books provide a ton of value. You can actually download a free sample from each book. Neal has no idea I’m putting this information here, so say Hi for me if you go over to his site.

If you found the article useful, please share it with others using the social network buttons above.

Search Engine Optimization

Probably one of the most significant facets of contemporary web design is search engine optimization, which we all know as SEO. Web designers are aware of the fact that Google, which is the most extensively used search engine has made modifications in its search algorithms to trim down spam content in search results. Having an appropriate handle on SEO is the difference between a top ranking website and one that does not attract any viable audiences. This means SEO must be adaptable for websites to be high in rankings.

Content

Good content is very important for your website, but good and effective search engine optimization helps you rank higher and beat the competition. This means that the content you produce for your website will not have the usual spam features such as content stuffed with keywords. The objective of Google is to have results that attract people who are searching out websites. Having a high quality website is an effective form of SEO in itself. Eventually it will become more rewarding as certain websites become obsolete.

Audience Types

The type of audience that you need to attract will determine the type of search engine optimization that you need. That is because now web browsing is not limited to laptops or desktop computers only. By making your website compatible with mobile you will increase your customer audience extensively. The future of SEO is going to be more intricate than it was in the past. Previously employed techniques to “get around” search engines continue to be eliminated. Construct your website for prolonged existence, as the shortcuts will only hurt you and your brand. It is paramount that you have Social Share buttons prominently placed on your site. You must make it easy for your audience to share your great content. Having a sharing mindset, and share articles and posts that you favor. Social media and networking is now an essential part of the online landscape, and it seems that there will be no decline in this trend in future. This means that for search engine optimization companies will have to concentrate on constructing large networks online in their efforts to increase the number of visitors who will visit their sites and read their web content. So start taking advantage of the social media now. It’s not too late.

Social Optimization

One genuine advantage of social optimization will be the creation of authentic back links from other web sites. When you have achieved wide audience recognition due to the social networking role, you will see a visible increase in your search engine rankings as many others start to link to your site. Back-links serve as very effective SERP word qualifier, and although you can buy back-links (not suggested), keep in mind that Google is strictly reducing the rankings of spam sites.

Personalized Searching

Personalized searching is a new phenomenon that has added to the difficulties of website designers aiming for successful SEO. This form of searching compares previous data from a user’s search records and throws up results that that show the interests of the searchers. Since Google is actively asserting this in their browser and their search engine, you can assume that this type of search will not be discontinued anytime in the future.
This means that this will have an impact on web users only if they subscribe to blogs only via the Google Reader app. The blog will be bumped in search results.

Tom Brady and the Patriots take on the Colts at home

Here is a look at the NFL Week 11 Predictions.

Sunday’s Games:

Philadelphia at Washington(-3.5) 1:00PM – The Philadelphia Eagles continue to disappoint. A battle of two 3-6 teams in Washington. The Eagles are a dreadful 1-8 ATS this year, and now start Nick Foles at QB as Mike Vick sits with the concussion. This is just another case where you have no choice but to take the points. The Redskins should be favored by 3.5 over anyone.
Philadelphia 23 Washington 17

Green Bay(-3) at Detroit 1:00PM – Green Bay off the bye and Detroit off a bad loss at Minnesota. Teams playing on Thanksgiving have not fared well the week before of late. Green Bay owns Detroit. Lay the small price.
Green Bay 31 Detroit 23

Arizona at Atlanta(-10) 1:00PM – The Falcons are off their first loss of the season and are now back at the friendly confines of home. They just don’t lose at home, but Arizona should be competitive today. The Cardinals keep it close.
Atlanta 24 Arizona 17

Tampa Bay(-1.5) at Carolina 1:00PM – The Bucs have been competitive all year. Carolina was outmatched last week against Denver. Expect some points here, and look for the home team Panthers to prevail in a close one.
Carolina 28 Tampa Bay 27

Cleveland at Dallas(-7.5) 1:00PM – The Cowboys never cover at home, and are off two road games which usually results in a sluggish effort. The Browns still playing hard and should keep it tight.
Dallas 23 Cleveland 20

Jets at St. Louis(-3) 1:00PM – This will be a tough one to watch even if you’re a relative of a player. Jets are very injured and probably making vacation plans already. The Rams gave one away last week against the 49ers, but they’re just the better team.
St. Louis 30 Jets 17

Indianapolis at New England(-9.5) 1:00PM – The Colts have play inspired ball all year and even came away with their first road win in quite some time against Tennessee a few weeks back. The Pats were very pedestrian last week against the Bills, but expect an “A” effort here off that lackluster performance. Pats roll.
New England 34 Indianapolis 17

Jacksonville at Houston(-15) 1:00PM – As bad as Jacksonville has been this year 16 in is a boatload of points in the NFL. The Texans might be uninspired here after the big win last week in Chicago. Jacksonville stays somewhat close.
Houston 31 Jacksonville 20

Cincinnati at Kansas City(-3.5) 1:00PM – The Bengals off a huge home win over the Super Bowl Champion Giants. Kansas City actually played well last week in Pittsburgh, and should have won if they were any good. KC brings that momentum into this one, and the Bengals fall flat.
Kansas City 31 Cincinnati 19

New Orleans(-6) at Oakland 4:05PM – The Saints had the big win against the undefeated Falcons last week while the Raiders were embarrassed in Baltimore. The Saints still have the weakest defense in the league and shouldn’t be favored on the road, and on grass, against anyone. Oakland has enough here and finds a way to win.
Oakland 33 New Orleans 30

San Diego at Denver(-8) 4:25PM – Everyone and their sister in love with Peyton and the Broncos right now. They’re off two road wins and now face revenged-minded Chargers. Bite your lip hard here and take the points.
Denver 34 San Diego 31

Baltimore(-3.5) at Pittsburgh 8:30PM – Losing Big Ben obviously hurts the Steelers especially if it turns out to be multiple weeks or the season. Everyone on the Steelers picks it up tonight. Expect a big effort from this Pittsburgh team as they take on the rival Ravens.
Pittsburgh 24 Baltimore 20

Monday Night:

Chicago at San Francisco(-6) 8:40PM – The Bears will be playing this one without the talents of QB Jay Cutler. The Bears didn’t fare well last year after Cutler went down. The 49ers come off a very disappointing tie to the Rams. Ugh. They’ve bounced back well after losing (a tie to the Rams at home is loss) the prior week under Harbaugh. Look for a huge performance from the 49ers in primetime.
San Francisco 27 Chicago 17

Best Bets: Oakland (+6), Kansas City (+3.5), Pittsburgh (+3.5)

Last Week ATS: 5-8
YTD ATS: 55-48

Last Week Best Bets ATS: 0-3
YTD Best Bests ATS: 9-12

Vanishing Rankings

If you are watching your site ranking dwindle after the Penguin update, you know that you need to re-evaluate your link building approach and the current link profile of your site. One feature that is evident in all the sites that are being subjected to penalties is their back-links to poor quality sites. The objective of Penguin is to eliminate useless back-links and promote sites that are linked to you, not sites that have greater quantity. This means that links from sites with too much spam are worthless, which should have been the case from day one.

Losing Ranking

Being linked to too many spammy sites will in fact damage your ranking. Damage is caused by links that are unrelated to your niche, guest blog posts on low quality content sites, link building that uses precisely matching anchor text with poor article marketing sites and over optimization. This also includes back-links from offensive sites that have been singled out for harmful software and spam that insert another anchor text or that have boldly been used with similar keywords to other sites.

Link Over-Optimization

Over optimized links have very little relevance to Google’s problem solving procedure (algorithms). These sites are efforts to play around with search rankings which are bad for your previously top ranked sites. Before the Penguin update, keyword targeting was the surest and fastest way to get rankings for your site. If anyone does this now, Google will penalize that site immediately and without mercy. So be extremely careful of any back-links that you are building for your sites.

Although Google has made no announcement on the exact number of sites that are considered to be “too much”, it has been noticed that the sites taken out by Google were sites that had target keywords as the anchor for over 60% of its inward bound links. While many over optimized sites were not taken down, keep in mind that Penguin reviews sites after 5 weeks. Sites that have been optimized less than 50% have currently not been affected or taken down by Google.

Assessment of Sites

Since the appraisal agreed for anchor text is being cutback, links that come from appropriate sites are considered more important than ever. Google’s Latent Semantic indexing which decides the niche of the domain is a much larger part of the most recent Penguin update. This means that text and relevancy will be accorded a greater precedence than before. Although text and relevancy have always been important, people have not focused on basic SEO standards for link building.

Google’s Algorithms

Now that the working procedures of Google have been developed to eliminate ranking shortcuts, you must create an approach that will not be affected by Penguin. This would be to evaluate your existing link profile, scrutinize other sites in your niche that have kept their ranking and keeping track of your SEO quality link building ranking on a regular basis. This will keep the ranking of your site from being steamrolled by Penguin.

Was your site affected by Penguin? Have your Link Building methods changed?

The Giants take on the Steelers after a very tough week

Here is a look at the NFL Week 9 Predictions. Can the Giants get up for the Steelers after a very tough week? Will the Atlanta still be undefeated at the end of the day? Let’s take a closer look at today’s slate.

Sunday’s Games:

Denver(-3.5) at Cincinnati 1:00PM – Denver and Peyton Manning have become everyone’s darling. The Bengals have really fallen off the table. After a 3-1 start Cincinnati has dropped their last three, two of those at home. The Bengals had a bye last week. Denver has won two in a row, and despite the early start at 1:00PM the Broncos just have too much offense for Cincy.
Denver 33 Cincinnati 21

Arizona at Green Bay(-10) 1:00PM – Arizona can’t score and Green Bay can score. That’s bad news for the Cardinals. Arizona started the season 4-0. They’ve since dropped their last four. They haven’t scored more than 16 in any of those four losses. The Packers have righted the ship after that awful loss to the Colts, and have won three in a row. They are averaging 32 points in those three wins. They were lackluster last week against the Jags, but get focused here before the bye week.
Green Bay 31 Arizona 13

Miami(-2) at Indianapolis 1:00PM – The Dolphins are off a big road win against the Jets as a dog and now they travel to Indianapolis and are installed as a favorite. While the Dolphins have been road warriors they have fared well after the Jets. Indy won on the road last week for the first time in 11 tries, and they’ve played well at home. Coach Chuck Pagano expected to be in attendance today. Indy gets the win.
Indianapolis 23 Miami 17

Baltimore(-3.5) at Cleveland 1:00PM – Baltimore is off a bye, but prior to that they got blown out against the Houston Texans. That week the Ravens learned that Ray Lewis would be out the rest of the season. Cleveland has played better but they’re still 2-6. Baltimore is down, but this is an all hands deck situation for Baltimore. Baltimore wins this one in a laugher.
Baltimore 31 Cleveland 13

Buffalo at Houston(-10) 1:00PM – Both teams are off a bye. The Texans offense should have a field day against the Bills defense. This defense gave up to 35 points to the Titans at home. The Bills have lost three games this year by 20 or more, and expect that today.
Houston 38 Buffalo 24

Carolina at Washington(-3) 1:00PM – Carolina seems to come up just a little bit short each week. The Panthers have now lost 5 in a row. They’ve lost those 5 by a total of 12 points. It seems like the Redskins have a winning record, but they’re only 3-5 on the season. These two teams have a lot of similarities including the style of play of each quarterback. Carolina keeps it close.
Washington 21 Carolina 20

Detroit(-5) at Jacksonville 1:00PM – The 3-4 Lions take on the 1-6 Jaguars down in Jacksonville. RB Maurice Jones-Drew will miss his second straight game. The Jaguars played Green Bay tough last week on the road, so despite the poor record they haven’t quit. The Lions have been so inconsistent and are just hard to trust. Jacksonville plays tough and keeps it close, but finds a way to lose.
Detroit 24 Jacksonville 20

Chicago(-3.5) at Tennessee 1:00PM – This line seems suspect, but Bears have struggled their last two games in wins against Detroit and Carolina. Jay Cutler returns to his college hometown for this matchup. The Titans have been all over the place, losing last week at home in OT against the Colts. The Bears defense will be too much for the Titans, and Cutler and offense get back on track.
Chicago 27 Tennessee 13

Minnesota at Seattle(-4) 4:05PM – The Minnesota Vikings were cruising along, but now have lost 2 of 3. The Seahawks are off two tough losses to Detroit and San Francisco. The good news for the Seattle Seahawks is that this game is at home. The Seahawks are 3-0 SU and ATS at home this year. This game should be tight for a while, but the home team prevails.
Seattle 27 Minnesota 17

Tampa Bay at Oakland(-1.5) 4:05PM – Two 3-4 teams square off in Oakland. Oakland is off two wins, while Tampa won 10 days ago at Minnesota. Tampa has been scrappy all year long, and they haven’t lost a game by more than seven points. This game has a FG margin written all over it. Oakland comes away with a victory in a tight one.
Oakland 27 Tampa Bay 24

Pittsburgh at Giants(-3) 4:25PM – The Pittsburgh Steelers have got back on track with two wins in a row after a sluggish start. This has been a frustrating, exhausting, and emotional week for anyone leaving in the tri-state area. Hurricane Sandy knocked out power for many days, and about 35% in the area are still in that situation. The Steelers are scheduled to arrive in New Jersey at 10:30AM as they decided to travel on game day due to their Hotel not having power. This is just an incredibly hard spot for the Giants.
Pittsburgh 31 Giants 17

Dallas at Atlanta(-3) 8:30PM – Matt Ryan is 29-4 SU at home. The Atlanta Falcons remained undefeated after controlling the Philadelphia Eagles on the road last week. Is Atlanta really this good? Probably should have two losses at this stage, but they find a way to win. Dallas made a great comeback against the Giants, but came up a little shy. They’ll carry that momentum into this game. This is just the kind of game that the crazy Cowboys win, and they will.
Dallas 30 Atlanta 24

Monday Night:

Philadelphia at New Orleans(-3) 8:35PM – This is the Disappointment Bowl. Big things were expected for the Philadelphia Eagles this year and they have not delivered. The Eagles had the ole “players only” meeting this week. We’ll see if that helps. At 2-5 the Saints are toast. Can a consistent playoff team stay motivated at this stage, probably not this year. Have to take the points in a game where both teams deserve each other. The dangerous RB Darren Sproles sits this one out with a hand injury.
Philadelphia 27 New Orleans 20

Best Bets: Eagles (+3), Pittsburgh (+3), Baltimore (-3.5)

Last Week ATS: 8-6
YTD ATS: 41-36

Last Week Best Bets ATS: 1-2
YTD Best Bests ATS: 7-8